*Tsk**Tsk*
"My, oh my. Since when Order hunts my followers? I thought I was the only target, no? How low!", Magnus said, his voice brimming with sarcasm. Then he looked at the bearer of the Strength Ring, who was coughing on the floor and said, "Escape this city. Use the shortcut."
*Cough*
Breathing heavily, Cheng Jian looked at his boss and with a hoarse voice said:
"Thanks, Boss. See you soon." He was thankful that his boss was able to reach him just in time. A bit longer, and there would have been nobody to save. After standing up, he quickly escapes.
*Sigh*
Dark slowly rose from the debris and his figure, distorted by the force, was quickly regenerating. He cracked his neck and said:
"I must say, I didn't expect you to be so strong."
Even though, Dark's words were full of confidence in his ability to defeat progeny, internally he was shocked thinking:
'I didn't feel neither his approach nor him casting a spell. Did he directly manipulate the ambient Mana in the air? How long was it, since the last time he escaped? It was less than 2 years, but he is already so strong? I should kill him as soon as possible.'
"Well, let's just say I had some practice during my... 'vacation'. And what of you, dear 'God'?" Magnus toned out the word "God" especially sarcastically.
Dark only smiled, thinking that Athena already took control over the body, if he knows so much. He then calmly said:
"It appears to be, she took a proper hold over her slave, huh. Wouldn't you come out and say hi to your old comrade, Athena? It's very uncultured to send a pet to greet the guest, you know."
Dark answered with as much sarcasm in his voice as Magnus.
"Oh? Are you speaking with yourself now? It looks like, understanding of your inevitable loss already broke your feeble mind little god."
Dark was amused by progeny's attempts at making him mad. But it's also possible he is simply dragging out the fight to win more time? Need to end this now.
"Loss? Oh, no... but speaking with the pawn is a waste of time anyway. Die!"
As soon as he finished speaking darkness all across the room seemingly materialized into dark spikes and tentacles rushing in to kill Magnus.
"Expecto Ignis Daemonium!"
A circle of dark-blue fire appeared around the Magnus. Everything that crossed this barrier of fire was burned to ash, even the very essence of darkness.
Moreover, the more darkness, the flame was consuming the stronger it was burning. Soon, the fire took a form of terrifying creature, with a snake's body, crow's skull as the head, some flexible but bony carapace covering its spine and hands ending with skeletal scythes.
(Image example: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aue3sNVQ-2Yq8S-i6t5tnNXiO0gc?e=zwkK4q)
After fully forming creature roared and started moving counter-clockwise insanely fast around Magnus. It was moving so fast, it actually created a fiery hurricane that started pushing the darkness back.
Dark was stupified that was that flame and how did it manifest into the creature. If he was at his peak, he could have used his strength to calculate everything he laid his eyes on. However, now with his Universe dead and him being the only survivor, he doesn't have enough energy to waste it.
But one thing was bothering him. That flame was able to selectively burn things, which meant either he has a high degree of control over it, or it's a conceptualized flame. After all, it was hot enough to turn materialized darkness into ash, yet didn't leave a mark on the floor.
"Commendable strength, but a bit weak for the so-called 'God', don't you agree?"
"..."
Dark preferred to keep quiet and just strengthen the pressure of the darkness, trying to break through the fire tornado. But the more he pressed, the faster that creature was moving, thus strengthening the 'barrier' of flame.
"So, you don't want to show your full power? Then let me force you, 'Daemonium Ignis Dominium'!"
Suddenly, a fiery demon, who was busy expanding the blazing barrier, stopped and roared again, scratching everything around with its limbs. What followed the roar, was an explosion of fire that disintegrated all the darkness together with the structures. Thanks to that, a circular area, with a diameter of 60 meters, was evaporated, which included the roof of the building, in which battle was taking place. Strangely enough, the flame didn't dissipate, it was burning in the very air, creating a domain of absolute heat in the area that was touched by the fire.
Dark had to move out from that area, in case that fire has indeed reached the conceptual level. He can't waste energy defending against the concept. It's easier to just evade. Plus either it's a concept or high-level control, it should exhaust that boy fast.
A loud voice boomed out of that domain:
"Well, I've advised you to take this fight seriously. Now, I will stop holding out."
Dark's figure materialized right outside the domain, but as soon as he did, he had to dodge, because dark-blue fire arrow flying at Mach-16 was close to piercing him. What followed, was bolts of lightning striking from the sky, not letting Dark go on the offensive.
While dodging, Dark felt something wrong. The domain filled with flames started slowly increasing. Moreover, lightning bolts were hitting in a way that forced him to move closer to that field.
'Is he trying to trap me?'
But Dark wasn't allowed time to properly consider his options, because more fire arrows started attacking.
'Seems like, I have no other choice. I can't save on power, now.'
Dark's figure stopped and his skin started shading off his body, revealing dark anthropomorphic faceless creature with dark light shining from inside his head.
Whatever that light touched, including arrows of fire and bolts of lightning, was dissipating into black particles, turning an area of 2 kilometers into a lifeless wasteland.
However, a ball of fire remained untouched. Moreover, it actually started expanding even faster, as if consuming energy provided by that light.
"Time for some big guns!" boomed Magnus's voice.